What is better than 'Fish in a Barrel'?

Fishing in a hatchery is better than in a barrel - there is more room for a fight!


No smelt in the river, and only one keeper sturgeon - we headed off for a birthday-party on the pond!

The pond we went to was on Sauvies Island, just north of Portland.

It was a beautiful place, with numerous ponds with various size trout.

The pond we were after held some 10 lb fish...






What a blast!

Even the adults were giggling like little kids.

Here is a fatty that one of the boys pulled in.

The spinner was homemade by the kid - he has big plans to market his new "super spinner" now!


Every cast had a good fish on - a couple REALLY big ones got away, too. They were huge.

About the only job the Dad's had was to help get hooks out - the boys took care of all the netting.

Oh yeah - Dads were busy taking pictures, too.

Here are the boys with their biggest ones.

You can see the strain and effort in their eyes...

Besides using his own home-made spinner, look at the tiny, flimsy fishing pole he pulled this big dude in with!

He fought the fish really well - with such a light rod and 6lb test, you have to finess a 12 lb fish into the net.

The boys were pretty tired after all this work and effort.

They did really well netting them, too.

We should have brought a bigger cooler!

The only downside to fishing at the hatchery was that it was over too soon - every cast brought in a fish, and we didn't want to take too many of them...

Oh well, what a fun time! I know alot of adults that would love to have a birthday party at a fish hatchery, too!

They had a very cool setup there - it was fun seeing all the small fry and equipment they used.

They said these little fish put on about 1.5 inches per month in the summer months.

Here is the haul when we got home.

The trout make the sturgeon look kinda small!

The smallest one was 8 lbs, and several of the big ones were over 14 lbs.

Beautiful meat on the fish - it was just like filleting spring salmon!

The bright meat and heavy oil - and we've NEVER seen so much fat inside a fish before. It was kinda gross...

A good chance for the older brother to practice filleting a fish, too.

He did a great job. Alot easier working on these shorter, fat fish than a big, long salmon when you are learning how to do it.

It was a great end of a great day. Lots of fish for the freezer and a beautiful day, too.

Can't wait for spring to get here!